Pre-service training will probably be the most intense period of your Peace Corps service, as you will need to gain the knowledge and experience necessary to successfully serve as a Volunteer in just 10 weeks. While the training period will be extremely busy, it should also be a time of excitement, discovery, and self-fulfillment. The effort and challenges of adapting to a new culture will draw on your reserves of patience and humor but will be handsomely rewarded with a sense of belonging among new friends.

Contents

Overview of Pre-Service Training

The most important function of Peace Corps staff is to
provide support for Volunteers. Support does not imply
daily supervision of Volunteers’ work, nor does it imply
assuming parental roles. Volunteer support implies an
ongoing interaction between Volunteers and all Peace Corps
staff regarding how you handle such matters as your overall
adjustment to the Peace Corps, your job assignment, and your
community. Your Peace Corps staff is responsible for making
regular visits to your site to assist you in any way possible in
your orientation in-country.

Training will be busy for everyone. Often you will work over
eight hours a day, five or six days a week. Be prepared for a
rigorous, full schedule. The principal objectives of training
are to provide a learning environment that enables you to
develop the language (Kinyarwanda), technical and cultural
skills, knowledge, and attitude necessary to work and live in
Rwanda.

Your training will be a mixture of classroom instruction and
training in the community, where you will learn by doing and
then reflect on your experiences during formal sessions. You
will spend time in the field, completing hands-on, practical
tasks and participating in group discussions, lectures, and
field trips. Each week you will spend time discussing what you
learned the previous week, preparing for the next work week,
and attending essential cross-cultural, health, administrative,
and integration sessions.

Most of the training staff will be Rwandan nationals.

Technical Training

Technical training prepares you to work in Rwanda by building
on the skills you already have and helping you to develop new
skills in a manner appropriate to the needs of the country.
The Peace Corps staff, Rwandan experts, and expatriate
consultants conduct the training program. Training places great
emphasis on learning how to transfer the skills you have to the
community in which you will serve as a Volunteer.

Technical training will include sessions on the general
environmental, economic, and political conditions in Rwanda
and strategies for working within such a framework. You will
review your technical sector’s goals and will meet with the
Rwandan agencies and organizations that invited the Peace
Corps to assist them.

You will be supported and evaluated by the training staff
throughout the training to build the confidence and skills
you will need to undertake your project activities and to be a
productive member of your community.

Language Training

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you will find that language skills
are the key to personal and professional satisfaction during
your service. These skills are critical to your job performance,
they help you integrate into your host community, and they
can ease your personal adaptation to the new surroundings.
Therefore, language training is the heart of the training
program, and you must successfully meet minimum language
requirements to complete training and become a Volunteer.
Experienced Rwandan language instructors give formal
language classes in small classes of four to five people. The
national language, Kinyarwanda, will also be introduced in the
health, culture, and technical components of training.

Your language training will incorporate a community-based
approach. You will have classroom time and will be given
assignments to work on outside of the classroom and with
your host family. The goal is to get you to a point of basic
social communication skills so you can develop language skills
more thoroughly once you are at your site. Prior to swearing
in as a Volunteer, you will work on strategies to continue
language studies during your two years of service.

Cross-Cultural Training

Cross-cultural and community development will be covered
to help improve your skills of perception, communication, and
facilitation. Topics such as community mobilization, conflict
resolution, gender and development, and traditional and
political structures are also addressed.

Health Training

During pre-service training, you will be given basic medical
training and information. You are expected to practice
preventive health care and to take responsibility for your own
health by adhering to all medical policies. The topics include
preventive health measures and minor and major medical
issues that Volunteers may encounter while in Rwanda.
Nutrition, mental health, setting up a safe living compound,
and how to avoid HIV/AIDS and other STDs are also covered.

Safety Training

During the safety training sessions, you will learn how to adopt
a lifestyle that reduces risk in your home, at work, and during
your travels. You will also learn appropriate, effective strategies
for coping with unwanted attention and about your individual
responsibility for promoting safety throughout your service.

Additional Training During Volunteer Service

In its commitment to institutionalize quality training, the
Peace Corps has implemented a training system that provides
trainees and Volunteers with continual opportunities to
examine their commitment to Peace Corps service while
increasing their technical and cross-cultural skills. During
your service, there are usually three training events. The titles
and objectives for those trainings are as follows:

In-service training: Provides an opportunity for Volunteers to upgrade their technical, language, and project development skills while sharing their experiences and reaffirming their commitment after having served for three to six months.

Midterm conference (done in conjunction with technical sector in-service): Assists Volunteers in reviewing their first year, reassessing their personal and project objectives, and planning for their second year of service.

Close of service conference: Prepares Volunteers for the future after Peace Corps service and reviews their respective projects and personal experiences.

The number, length, and design of these trainings are adapted
to country-specific needs and conditions. The key to the
training system is that training events are integrated and
interrelated, from the pre-departure orientation through
the end of your service, and are planned, implemented, and
evaluated cooperatively by the training staff, Peace Corps
staff, and Volunteers.